Powell: War on women about more than health care

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Re: "Stop talking about the war on women," by Karen Cook, letters, Nov. 1

War on women is not about having their health care paid for. It's about the recent sheer influx of bills being put forth and passed regulating women's personal health decisions. Getting past the inequality in pay and opportunities, women's health costs being higher, and discrimination; the base of the war on women is government and policy. You can't argue with the data. 1100 provisions were introduced in 2011 concerning women's health and reproductive rights, 135 passed, 92 limited abortion. For some perspective, from 1985 to 2009 the yearly average number of bills passed limiting abortion was about 15. There are no bills concerning men's health. Get your facts straight, it's always been illegal for the funding that went to women's health services to go to abortions. What really grinds my gears is when people say "Oh that's not a thing, I haven't experienced that." Well I guess if you haven't been raped, then it's not real. Let me tell you, being a female mechanic in a male dominated industry for a decade, the inequality, lack of opportunities and discrimination is very real! It affects me in the biggest ways. It's my livelihood. It's my freedom. Women are 40 percent of the world's workforce but hold 1 percent of the wealth. Sixty-four percent of women workers earn minimum wage. Less than 4 in 100 fortune 500 CEO's are women. Though it's proven women in the workplace are more ethical. 1 in 265 job sectors women make more than men, and only 2 percent more at that, men make more in the rest. Women make 77 cents to the dollar that men make. Equality of pay, health care and opportunity is freedom. It is my right! But I guess since you've never experienced any of that it's not real.